It's Just Sex

If someone had asked me to predict the reaction I would have to reading an excerpt of John Cleland’s Fanny Hill before I read it, I don’t think I could have come anywhere close to the actual reaction I had. Of course, I was somewhat taken aback by the unabashed vulgarity and graphic nature of the text at first. I am always surprised by historical texts that legitimately hold their shock value over centuries of progress and human evolution, both biological and societal. However, after further contemplation of the text and a brief look into the history of the novel and Cleland himself, my reaction shifted from one of shock to one of complete disbelief. When Cleland wrote the novel in the mid-Eighteenth Century, it was immediately criticized by the bishop of London who called it “an open insult upon religion and good manners.” Cleland was subsequently arrested for authoring the work, and it was not legally published again for over one hundred years. Such punishment, when contextualized in Cleland’s time, doesn’t surprise me. At this time in Europe as well as in America, religion was still supposed to be the foundation upon which one built his life, morals, and values. The Church was still a majorly authoritative figure and such blatant sexual expression was not in line with any of the Church’s ideals. What amazed me, however, was that Fanny Hill was not legally published again until a U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled otherwise in 1966. I then began to think about how such a work would be perceived by the general American public today. We have entered into another deeply religious age in this country, and though Cleland certainly wouldn’t have been arrested for writing his novel, I would venture to guess that millions of Americans would have deemed the book blasphemous and morally offensive. Perhaps this is simply my own skewed opinion, but I can’t help feeling that even in a country that has experienced immense technological and social progress, many Americans still see the most basic of human instincts as sinful and offensive. Whether it is a reflection of religious prominence, political tendencies, or general shyness, I am unsure. However, I think that many of the issues that divide our country today echo many of the issues present in Cleland’s lifetime, which I find extremely scary.